Recapitulation of Normal and Abnormal BioBreeding Rat T Cell Development in Adult Thymus Organ Culture

Congenitally lymphopenic diabetes-prone (DP) BioBreeding (BB) rats develop spontaneous T cell-dependent autoimmunity. Coisogenic diabetes-resistant (DR) BB rats are not lymphopenic and are free of spontaneous autoimmune disease, but become diabetic in response to depletion of RT6+ T cells. The basis for the predisposition to autoimmunity in BB rats is unknown. Abnormal T cell development in DP-BB rats can be detected intrathymically, and thymocytes from DR-BB rats adoptively transfer diabetes. The mechanisms underlying these T cell developmental abnormalities are not known. To study these processes, we established adult thymus organ cultures (ATOC). We report that cultured DR- and DP-BB rat thymi generate mature CD4 and CD8 single-positive cells with up-regulated TCRs. DR-BB rat cultures also generate T cells that express RT6. In contrast, DP-BB rat cultures generate fewer CD4+, CD8+, and RT6+ T cells. Analysis of the cells obtained from ATOC suggested that the failure of cultured DP-BB rat thymi to generate T cells with a mature phenotype is due in part to an increased rate of apoptosis. Consistent with this inference, we observed that addition of the general caspase inhibitor Z-VAD-FMK substantially increases the number of both mature and immature T cells produced by DP-BB rat ATOC. We conclude that cultured DR-BB and DP-BB rat thymi, respectively, recapitulate the normal and abnormal T cell developmental kinetics and phenotypes observed in these animals in vivo. Such cultures should facilitate identification of the underlying pathological processes that lead to immune dysfunction and autoimmunity in BB rats.

Signs of Immaturity of Splenic Dendritic Cells from the Autoimmune Prone Biobreeding Rat: Consequences for the In Vitro Expansion of Regulator and Effector T Cells

From the biobreeding-diabetic prone (BB-DP) rat, an animal model for endocrine autoimmunity, phenotype and function of splenic dendritic cells (DC) were studied. Furthermore, the suppressive effect of peritoneal macrophages (pMφ) from the BB-DP rat in the MLR was investigated. Lower numbers of splenic DC were isolated from BB-DP rats than from control Wistar rats. In the preautoimmune phase, DC of the BB-DP rat had a lower surface MHC class II expression (and in preliminary data, a lower CD80 expression), ingested more bacteria, and had a lower stimulatory potency in the syngeneic (syn)MLR as compared with control DC. During disease development, the MHC class II expression further decreased, and a low stimulatory activity became evident in the allogeneic (allo)MLR. With regard to the expansion of suppressor/regulatory T cells, a lower percentage of RT6+ T cells but higher percentages of CD45RClow T cells were induced by BB-DP DC in synMLR, but not in alloMLR. An increase in the CD4/CD8 T cell ratio was observed in both the syn- and alloMLR due to a relative weak expansion of CD8+ T cells with DC of the BB-DP rat. Resident pMφ isolated from BB-DP or Wistar rats were equally effective in suppressing the DC-driven synMLR. In conclusion, splenic DC from the BB-DP rat have a lower accessory cell function already at young age, before the development of disease, and expanded different subsets of effector/suppressor T cells in vitro as compared with those from Wistar rats. The dysfunction of DC from BB-DP rats is likely to be caused by their relative immaturity as indicated by their low class II and costimulatory molecule expression and relatively high phagocytic activity.

Characterization of High Density Lipoprotein-Bound and Soluble RT6 Released Following Administration of Anti-RT6.1 Monoclonal Antibody

RT6 is a rat lymphocyte glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored alloantigen with nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) glycohydrolase (NADase) and auto-ADP-ribosyltransferase activities. RT6 may have immunoregulatory properties based in part on the observation that injection of diabetes-resistant (DR)-BB rats with depleting doses of anti-RT6.1 mAb induced autoimmune diabetes and thyroiditis. We now report that injection of DR-BB rats with anti-RT6.1 mAb increased plasma NADase activity, which localized, by fluid phase liquid chromatography fractionation, to the high density lipoprotein (HDL) fraction. Following ultracentrifugation in high salt, however, RT6 was found in the nonlipoprotein fraction, where it existed, under nondenaturing conditions, as a 200-kDa complex and, by SDS-PAGE, as a 30- to 36-kDa species. Thy-1, another GPI-linked protein, and proteins that reacted with anti-GPI-oligosaccharide Abs also translocated from HDL to the nonlipoprotein fraction under similar conditions. Injection of anti-RT6.1 mAb into thymectomized DR and diabetes-prone-BB rats increased soluble RT6 to levels comparable to those observed in euthymic DR-BB rats, suggesting that HDL-bound RT6 is not derived from peripheral lymphocytes. In agreement, NADase activity in the plasma of eviscerated DR-BB rats did not increase following injection of anti-RT6 mAb. These data suggest that HDL is a carrier of plasma RT6 and other GPI-linked proteins, with equilibrium between the lipoprotein and nonlipoprotein fractions being salt dependent. Since GPI-linked proteins in HDL can transfer to cells in a functionally active form, the presence of RT6 in HDL is consistent with it having a role in signaling in nonlymphoid cells.

High Frequency Apoptosis of Recent Thymic Emigrants in the Liver of Lymphopenic Diabetes-Prone BioBreeding Rats

Diabetes-prone (DP) BioBreeding (BB) rats develop spontaneous autoimmune diabetes. DP-BB thymocyte export is reduced, and most thymic emigrants disappear rapidly from peripheral lymphoid tissues. DP-BB rats are consequently lymphopenic and circulate severely reduced numbers of T cells. Peripheral T cells present are phenotypically immature (Thy1+) and appear activated. We hypothesized that DP-BB recent thymic emigrants have a shortened life span and disappear by apoptosis. The percentage of T cells with an αβTCRlowB220+CD4−CD8− phenotype was increased in DP peripheral lymphoid tissues when compared with normal, nonlymphopenic diabetes-resistant (DR) BB rat tissues. There was no evidence of DNA fragmentation in freshly isolated DP- or DR-BB rat cells, but, after 24 h of culture, a higher proportion of DP- than DR-BB splenic T cells underwent apoptosis. We then tested the hypothesis that BB rat T cells with the αβTCRlowB220+CD4−CD8− phenotype accumulate and undergo apoptosis in the liver. Such cells were observed undergoing apoptosis in both DP- and DR-BB rats, but comprised ∼80% of intrahepatic T cells in DP vs ∼20% in DR-BB rats. Most αβTCRlowB220+CD4−CD8− cells in the liver were also Thy1+. The data suggest that T cell apoptosis in the DP-BB rat is underway in peripheral lymphoid tissues and is completed in the liver. Increased intrahepatic apoptosis of recent thymic emigrants appears in part responsible for lymphopenia in DP-BB rats and the concomitant predisposition of these animals to autoimmunity.

Antigen Activation Rescues Recent Thymic Emigrants from Programmed Cell Death in the BB Rat

One of the diabetes susceptibility genes of the BB rat is a mutation at the lyp locus that decreases the thymic output of T cells and the life span of most recent thymic emigrants (RTE). Consequently, there is a 10-fold reduction in the number of CD4+ and CD8+ T cells in secondary lymphoid organs. Results presented in this work demonstrate that the BB rat lyp mutation is associated with an accelerated apoptotic death in vitro of mature CD4+8− and CD4−8+ thymocytes and peripheral T cells. The stability of the pool of recirculating T cells (PRL) of BB rats over time results from a >10-fold increase in the mitotic activity of T cells as assessed in vivo by bromodeoxyuridine incorporation. This increased mitotic activity is not observed when BB T cells develop in the context of a normal sized PRL. MHC haploidentical WF and BB rats differ at minor histocompatibility loci. Intravenous injection of (WF × BB)F1 T cells into euthymic BB rats led to the rejection of donor T cells within 3 wk by unprimed recipients and within 1 wk by primed recipients. This secondary immune response was unaffected by postpriming thymectomy. F1 T cells were not rejected, but rather expanded after their injection into thymectomized BB rats that had been primed as early as 48 h after thymectomy. These results strongly suggest that the BB rat PRL is devoid of long-lived naive T cells and that rescue of recent thymic emigrants from programmed cell death is initiated by Ags, exclusively.